Assembly Envelopes
An assembly envelope is a special type of assembly component. It is
a reference component, and it is ignored in global assembly operations
(Bill of Materials, Mass Properties, and so on). This functionality allows
you to select components based on their positions with respect to the
envelope volume (inside, outside, or crossing).
You can use an envelope by itself to quickly change the visibility of
assembly components. You can also use an envelope (either alone or in
combination with file properties), to select components for other editing
operations, such as suppress, copy, or delete.
The envelope component must be a solid volume (not shelled). This is
because selection with envelopes is based on interference between the
volumes of the functional assembly components and the envelope component.
It is not based on the containment of components within the bounding box
of the envelope component.
Envelope components are displayed in a light blue transparent color
when you use Shaded view mode.
An Envelope feature is added to
the ConfigurationManager for each envelope component that you create.
Also, envelope components are identified in the FeatureManager design
tree.